Library Shines Spotlight on Teen Artist

Sarah Armstrong is staying busy this summer. Like many people her age, this 17-year-old rising senior at Cranford High School babysits three times a week and holds down a job at the Cranford Vanilla Bean Creamery.

But few other teens can say they've spent their summer vacations also working on commissioned paintings.

Armstrong's work is on display at the Cranford Public Library  through September 10. Armstrong said she was approached by Gerry Paradiso of the Friends of the Library, who was interested in getting her work exhibited. Now a handful of her drawings and paintings are sitting in a glass case in the center of the library.

Armstrong's been interested in art since she was young, but jokes that her mother says an artist is the last think she thought her daughter would be, because Armstrong used to color whole pages of coloring books black.

It wasn't until seventh grade, she said, that she started getting serious, studying magazines and pictures and trying to puzzle out the anatomy of different pieces of artwork.

"I just had an epiphany," Armstrong said. "Suddenly, I could draw better."

She may have started drawing (and continues to draw), but Armstrong's favorite medium is paint. She works with acrylics and oil, and says she has an emotional connection with painting.

"When I paint, I'm not necessarily thinking about the finished product," she adds. "I just start painting, and all of a sudden it's done. It's not really a conscious thing."

Some of Armstrong's favorite artists are Da Vinci, Francis Bacon, Gustav Klimt and, though she's not generally a fan of modern art, Mark Rothko. She counts CHS art teacher Joanne Knego as one of her biggest supporters, and says her friends have been encouraging, even posing for some of her works. One of the works displayed in the library, a "Lady Gaga-esque" self portrait, came about because she and her friend Corina Lupp have a running competition, each trying to outdo the other in creating the craziest piece of art, she said.

Besides being able to marshal plenty of talent, one of Armstrong's best attributes as an artist is her ability to think originally. She won two contests run by Art Educators of New Jersey because she was able to outthink the competition.

The first was a planet-Earth themed poster contest in which most contestants used a globe as the motif. Armstrong however, crafted a poster of a muddy footprint in the grass.

The second competition was a patriotically minded calendar contest in which contestants created works inspired by the phrase "This is America," Armstrong said. While many artists used flags in their works, she drew a woman made of flags.

Additionally, her entry in the Paint the Town contest has garnered her at least six paid commissions this summer.

Armstrong said she plans on entering the AENJ contests again this year, as well as scholarship contests to help defray the costs of college. She is applying to about 20 schools, most of which are in New York City or Philadelphia, where she'll seek to major in either advertising, graphic design or product design.

A class with local illustrator Paul Casale was enough to make her realize that she's not interested in pursuing a career in the very competitive illustration industry, even though she enjoyed the class.

"For me, painting is all about living in the moment," she says. "I don't like going back to fix things that might not be totally realistic; I paint things how I saw them, even if it's not realistic."